Venetian blind slat



-April 6, 1943. 1 s MORSE ETAL 2,315,640

VENETIAN BLIND SLAT Original Filed Nov. 18, 1936 INVENTORS. Q 5%??? BY ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 6, 1943 VENETIAN BLIND SLAT Lulan S. Morse and Clarence W.

Morse, Santa Monica. Calif., assig'nors to Acme Steel Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Original application No 2 Claims.

Our invention relates to Venetian blind slats, and more particularly to resilient, metal, Venetian blind slats.

An object of the invention is to provide a Venetian blind slat that may be painted with a gloss paint and yet avoid any glare in the room. This object is carried out by having a convex crown on such a slat. By this construction light is reflected to all parts of the room, thus making the room brighter and yet avoiding any glare.

Another object is to provide a pre-formed, laterally concave-convex, metal Venetian blind slat with similar radii defined about a single point.

Still another object resides in providing strip material having pre-formed lateral curvature of the character mentioned, for the purpose of cutting such slats therefrom. The material being of such resilience that the lateral curvature is temporarily removed therefrom when the material is wound in a coil. Upon unwinding of the coil, the preformed curvature returns to the material.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of three assembled slats which were made in conformance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 3, of a roll I4 of material from which the present slats are cut. The material in the roll M has lateral pre-formed curvature, but because of winding the material in the coil H, the curvature is flattened out temporarily.

Figure 3 is a side view of the roll [4, looking in the direction of the arrows 3, 3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an elevation of a similar roll or coil 8 of the material, but with an end l5 loosened, and looking in the direction of the arrows 4, 4 of Figure 5.

Figure 5 is a side elevation looking in the direction of the arrows 5, 5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a transverse section taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a transverse section of a modified construction.

Figure 8 is a transverse section of another modified construction.

This application is divisional of our pending application Serial No. 111,384, filed November 18, 1936, on Venetian blind.

vember 18, 1936, Serial Divided November 14, 1938, S

and this application erial No. 240,229

Referring more in detail to the drawing, the reference numeral 6 generally designates a resilient, metal Venetian blind slat having a preiormed, laterally convex crown and a laterally concave under side. The curve of the convex and concave surfaces has the same radii throughout, defined about a single point. This preiormed curvature of the slats is illustrated at l in Figure 4. While the numeral 1 in Figure 4 designates an end of a roll 8 of material from which the slats are cut, nevertheless this same curvature obtains in the finished slat itself. This curvature is also shown in perspective in Figure l.

The slat has rounded corners, as suggested at 9, and elongated apertures I0 adjacent opposite ends for suspension cords 12 for the blind. Adjusting tapes l3 at opposite sides of the slats are utilized to adjust the blind. Supporting tapes connecting the vertical tapes [3 are disposed under the slats and are not shown in the drawing. Such supporting tapes are of conventional construction.

Conventional Venetian blind head and foot members are also omitted from Fig. 1, since they are well understood in the art.

It is to be noted that the edges of our slats are not bent over or hemmed (as bent over edges are known in the art).

These straight edges facilitate rolling the material in a coil, as suggested at l4. The rolling of the material in a coil flattens out the curvature of the material, as suggested at l6. Then when the material is uncoiled, as shown at IS, the pre-formed curvature returns as shown at 7, due to the resilience of the material.

Theuniform curvature of the present slat simplifies painting of same. Since the painting is done by matched rolls of similar contour to the convex-concave faces of the slat, slight lateral slip of the slat material is immaterial, whereas with irregular shaped slats, a slight lateral slip of the material prevents proper paintmg.

The slats are preferably made of cold rolled high carbon steel, which of course affords considerable resiliency, The material preferably is of a thickness ranging from .006 to .01 of an inch. The high carbon content of the material provides a hardness of approximately I08 or I09, Brinell scale reading. The slats are generally 1% to 2 inches in width.

The aforedescribed preferred material is so thin that it would not be rigid in a longitudinal direction were it not for the curved cross section, which preferably provides a crown of 3?; to 1% of an inch.

In use, it is believed clear that the resilience and flexibility of the present slat efiectively resists ordinary bending or other distortion. Moreover, since the slat is preferably painted with an outer coat of gloss paint, there will be a reflection into a room, by the glossy crown, a maximum amount of uniform light, but without glare.

While we have illustrated and described what we now regard as the preferred embodiment of our invention, the construction is, of course, sub- Ject to modifications without departing from the spirit of our invention. We, therefore, do not wish to restrict ourselves to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but desire to avail ourselves of all modifications which may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A metal Venetian blind slat comprising a "strip of material having a single convex-concave curve from edge to edge. the curve being about a single center, the material being normally substantially straight in a longitudinal line, and the material having sufficient resilience to be coiled upon itself and when released to resume its original, substantially straight form by its inherent resilience.

2. A metal Venetian blind slat comprising a strip of material of single thickness from edge to edge and continuously and gradually curved from edge to edge, the material being normally substantially straight in a longitudinal line and of sufficient resilience to be coiled upon itself and when released to resume its original, substantially straight form by its inherent resilience.

LULAN S. MORSE.

CLARENCE W. MORSE. 

